


Starry Night

by onceandfuturekiki



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7566823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceandfuturekiki/pseuds/onceandfuturekiki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vax asks Keyleth if she wants to go into the forest to search for potion ingredients. With him. At night. Keyleth knows something is up. A rough version of this was posted to Tumblr a few months ago, but this is a far more polished and complete version.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starry Night

The night sky was full of stars, the forest teeming with life, a sharp contrast to what had happened not too long ago. Being back in green, lively forest was comforting to Keyleth. She had found the forest in the Frostweald unsettling the first time around, and it had only seemed more troubling and disconcerting the second time. To her, nature was about life, and there didn’t seem to be much of that in the wild of the Frostweald. Being back where the trees were green, where she could hear the birds in the sky and the wolves in the distance, and where she could feel the leaves beneath her feet made her feel far more relaxed than she had in quite some time.

Next to her, though, Vax seemed decidedly  _un_ relaxed. His posture was tense, his footsteps were heavy, and he had barely said a word since they set out for their walk. It had been his suggestion that they go out looking for potion ingredients in the forest outside of Whitestone, but he’d seemed somewhat agitated when he asked her. Keyleth had figured something might have been going on, or that he was upset about something with the rest of the group and wanted to get away, especially considering that he had suggested they go looking for plants and herbs at night.  But he hadn’t said a single thing since they’d reached the forest, and she was becoming concerned.

“Is everything all right?” she asked, slowing her pace and turning to look at Vax.

“Hmm?” he looked at her, seeming as though he hadn’t expected to hear her voice. “What?”

She stopped completely then, turning to face him. “You’re kind of worrying me. You’re obviously… nervous? Or upset? You haven’t said a thing since we left the castle. It’s like you’re in another world completely. And, I mean… you wanted to go looking for potion ingredients at night. When it’s  _dark.”_

Vax’s expression turned bashful then. “You know, you’re better at reading people than anyone gives you credit for.”

“Not really,” Keyleth said, feeling a blush start to bloom across her cheeks. “Just you.”

Through the dark she could just barely see his bashful smile spread wide across his face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you,” he said. “There’s nothing…  _wrong_ , exactly. I just… can we keep walking? Just for a little bit?”

“You know you can talk to me, right?” she said, his evasiveness doing nothing to quell her worry, despite his more cheerful demeanor. “I know things have been… complicated with us, but I know you’re going through a lot right now, and if you need to talk… I know we haven’t done that – talked – since that night that I told you…” she trailed off, remembering that awful night after they’d returned from Vasselheim, when she’d tried to use restoration magic on Vax as she had tried desperately to understand what had happened to him, when he’d told her he loved her and she’d told him she loved him, but that she was too scared of losing him to let herself be with him. Everything that had happened that night, everything they’d said, good and bad, it was never far from her mind.

Some of the cheerfulness left his face at the mention of that night, but he continued to smile at her, taking her hand. “Really. Everything’s fine. Trust me.”

His words did little to ease her concern, but she nodded, allowing Vax to lace their fingers together as they continued walking down the path. She could tell that his disposition had calmed, but the tightness with which he grasped her hand suggested that he was still somewhat keyed up.

It was all very confusing for Keyleth. Vax really had barely spoken to her since that night in her room. Yes, she realized that there was  _a lot_  going on and that there were far more important things going on than their relationship. But she couldn’t remember the last time they had gone for so long without really even speaking to each other. The whole situation had her half convinced that he hated her now, that what she’d said that night had finally broken him. So the invitation to go hunting for herbs and plants had come as quite the surprise, and she would have been embarrassed by how quickly and eagerly she accepted had the smile that formed on his face the second she said yes not been so happy and even downright goofy.

Her attention turned back to the present, and to Vax, when he stopped them, letting go of her hand. He took a few steps forward, toward a row of bushes and shrubs. She watched, baffled, as he started pushing at the branches and the leaves. “Dammit, Stubby,” he muttered under his breath. “I said to make sure it was hidden, not to use your ranger mojo to make it impossible to find.” He continued poking around, until some of the branches gave way, and he let out a triumphant noise, pushing aside a grouping of branches and leaves before reaching out for her hand. “Come on.”

Keyleth allowed him to pull her forward, through the small entry he had made. “Vax, what’s going on?” She looked at his somewhat sheepish face before her attention was drawn to the sight before them: a clearing in the forest, filled with moonlight, with one large tree in the middle, next to which a fur was spread out on the ground, a basket and a cask of wine setting on top. Her jaw dropping, she turned her attention over to Vax, who was looking very nervous and vaguely embarrassed. “Did you do this?” she asked, her voice breathy.

“I-well…” he stammered. “Vex helped.”

“ _Vex_  helped?” she practically shrieked in shock.

“Just in setting up. The idea was all mine.” He still looked nervous, clearly unsure of what her reaction truly was. “Look, this isn’t… I’m not trying to-“

“Is this a date?” she asked, her voice quiet.

“No!” Vax rushed the assure her. “I mean, unless you want it to be?” He closed his eyes tight, clenching his jaw, as though he was chastising himself in his head. “This isn’t me trying to push you. I promise. It’s just that everything has been so…,” he let out a heavy breath as he trailed off, making a vague gesture with his hand. “And this is the first time we’ve had a chance to just take it easy for a night. It’s been awhile since we were alone, or since we talked at all.” His gaze swept over the set up in front of them, and his brow furrowed, drawing down over his eyes. “I’m an idiot. I’m sorry. Really, the idea started as just asking you to take a walk, and then it turned into this. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“

“Vax-“ she said, gently putting an end to his rambling. “This is wonderful.”

“Really?” he said, that familiar hope entering his eyes. She nodded, and this time she led the way, tugging on his hand as she led them to the fur, sitting down as Vax moved to start emptying the basket. He started to ramble on about the food he had packed, and while she wasn’t really listening her eyes watched him the entire time. In that moment he seemed so happy just to be there with her, sitting under a tree in the moonlight. And she found that she was happy too.  _So_  happy. Happier than she had been in a long time. Certainly happier than she had been since Emon had fallen to the dragons. And probably happier than she had been since before they left to save Whitestone. The last time she could remember feeling a happiness that was comparable was when she finished her trial in Pyrah. Something she might not have done had it not been for him.

_I love you_  she thought as she watched him, still talking as he poured them each some wine.

“Vax,” Keyleth said, her voice barely above a whisper. He stopped talking, looking at her with wide eyes. She took a deep breath before speaking. “I can’t pretend that I’m not still scared. I’m trying not to be. I really am. What my father said when we were in Pyrah, I’m really trying to take his words to heart. But I’m still… working on it. I don’t know when I’m going to be able to get past that fear. Or if I ever will be. But this…” she gestured with her hand to the scene around them, the candles and the picnic and the two of them, sitting close. “I think that I can do this. This is… nice. This isn’t scary. This I can do.”

Vax leaned in close to her, his hand covering hers tentatively. “I don’t ever want you to do something you don’t want to do just because you think it’s what I want.”

“I know,” Keyleth said, turning her hand over under his so she could rub her thumb along the back of his hand, seeking comfort in his skin against hers. “That’s the thing, though. I  _do_  want it. I want it all. It’s just not that simple.”

“Why can’t it be?” he asked, his voice cracking as he stared intently at their hands.

She wished it was as simple as “why not?” She wished she could just rush headlong into loving him without all of these worries and fears. But her life in general wasn’t that simple. And neither was this.

“I’m not saying never,” she promised, trying to ease herself just as much as she was trying to ease him. “But for now… this is good. This I can do.”

“Anything you’d be willing to give is enough for me,” he said, sliding his fingers between hers and squeezing gently. “I love you.”

“And I love you,” she said without hesitation.

Vax leaned in toward her, but stopped before their lips met, letting her have the control. She looked into his eyes, marveling at the vulnerability and the naked  _hope_  there, and she let herself hope, too, that this was just the beginning. That she’d be able to have everything she wanted with him. And she closed the remaining inches between them, pressing her lips to his.

His smile was soft when they parted, his eyes bright and happy. Smiling back, she squeezed his hand before letting go, reaching toward the fruit he’d pulled out of the basket. “I’m starving,” she said, shoving a whole strawberry in her mouth. Chuckling, he looked at her with that soft, wonder-filled gaze with which she had become familiar but which she didn’t think she’d ever get used to. She smiled as wide as she could with a mouth full of strawberry, holding the dish out to him.

Still laughing, he accepted the dish and leaned back against the tree, still watching her. Keyleth felt herself blushing under his gaze. Ducking her face behind her hair, she reached for another piece of fruit, maneuvering herself next to Vax. His arm wound its way around her, pulling her close to him and pressing a kiss into her hair as she rested her head on his shoulder.

Later that night they walked hand-in-hand back to Whitestone Castle, and when he kissed her in front of the door to her room, taking her face in both of his hands as her arms wound around his middle, her toes tingled at the promise and love she felt there, stealing her breath away.

That night she would dream of her future, of being with Vax while he grew old, a dream she’d had many times before. But unlike all the other times, she would wake up in the morning and the heartaches she’d feel over her dream would be outweighed, just a bit, by hope.


End file.
